Construction of the $191 million HCMC expansion, as seen in this architectural rendering by BWBR, is expected to start in January 2016. The Minneapolis Planning Commission’s Committee of the Whole will review the project Thursday. (Submitted image)

HCMC plans ‘transparent’ design for $191M expansion

New images of Hennepin County Medical Center’s planned $191 million expansion show a building that creates what the design team calls a “sense of transparency” for passersby.

The images were published in a city staff report in advance of a meeting of the Minneapolis Planning Commission’s Committee of the Whole, which will review the site plan Thursday.

The 322,000-square-foot, seven-story addition will extend the hospital at 701 Park Ave. S. eastward on a site bordered by Eighth Street, Park Avenue, Ninth Street and Chicago Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.

The project’s tentative schedule calls for completion of design development in June with construction starting “around the end of August,” HCMC spokesman Tom Hayes said in an email.

St. Paul-based BWBR, the project’s designer, said in a report to the committee that the building’s design features a “welcoming, embracing north facade,” and an “open and transparent” street-level floor.

The glass facades “create a level of transparency, which invites the community to engage in the interior activities and bridge life to the exterior environment,” BWBR noted.

BWBR also said the project will meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design requirements with sustainable features related to energy use, storm water management, and pedestrian and mass transit accessibility.

Jon Pryor, CEO of Hennepin Healthcare System, said at the time that the new building will “improve the experience” for HCMC patients.

“Right now our primary care and specialty care clinics downtown are spread across nine buildings that we own or lease,” he said. “Bringing them together into one building will make it more convenient for our patients and more efficient for our staff.”

According to the BWBR report:

The building will have six levels of ambulatory care facilities totaling 295,000 square feet, a “mechanical penthouse” on a 27,000-square-foot seventh level, and 130,000 square feet of underground parking on two levels.

The first floor will include a lobby, café, pharmacy, clinics, conference space and more. Levels three through five will house additional clinic and conference space. The sixth floor will offer spaces for ambulatory surgery, a gastroenterology lab and sterile processing.